


on the wind of morning

by American_Pandora



Series: a letter made of scarlet [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Blood Magic, Canon Compliant, F/M, Old Gods, description of a miscarriage
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-07
Updated: 2016-12-07
Packaged: 2018-09-07 02:45:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8780095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/American_Pandora/pseuds/American_Pandora
Summary: Aegon had insisted on cutting their honeymoon short, once he'd found out. They had visited Pentos and Braavos already, sailed back to Dorne and worked their way up the Seven Kingdoms, had made it to the Twins when the Maester there tells them they are expecting
  Betha Blackwood Targaryen and her pregnancies





	

**Author's Note:**

> this chapter describes in detail a miscarriage and then blood magic. If that is something you're sensitive too, please be aware
> 
> * * *
> 
> House Blackwood's words aren't described anywhere, but I decided that based off of their history and banner that "Blood for the Old Gods" couldn't be that much of a major disservice to them.

the first lost one (the sacrifice):

It is their first, and they are terribly excited, and it paints her thighs red a little more than half a year after she and Aegon marry. 

She is not far along, but it _hurts_ , they had only known for about a moon and _it is not fair_.

Aegon had insisted on cutting their honeymoon short, once he'd found out. They had visited Pentos and Braavos already, sailed back to Dorne and worked their way up the Seven Kingdoms, had made it to the Twins when the Maester there tells them they are expecting. 

The Wall will wait, he tells her, purple eyes big and so full of love, it's stood for ages, it is unlikely to fall should they miss it.

* * *

Betha Blackwood bleeds out her and Aegon's child- _son_ , her heart whispers, her heart _knows_ \- at her childhood home of Raventree Hall. 

When she awakens to see the blood staining her white shift, she cannot help but think of her family's banners _and mother mother died this way bled out her babe all over the bedroom floor_ , the white weirwood against red, and of her family's words. 

_Blood for the Old Gods._

Aegon wakes a small eternity later to find her staring at the slowly spreading red patch. It is his cry that alerts the servants, but she has made a deal with the Gods already. 

_You may have this one, and then you will give me a son._

She makes sure her maid saves the bloody shift, and sneaks out to the Godswood, once she has regained her strength, to meet with Gammer Hilde before the heart tree, the woodswitch who has seen to the spiritual needs of the last three generations of her family. 

Betha hears rumors that Hilde came from beyond the wall, that she has warmed the bed of both her grandfather and father- and borne one of their bastards.

Betha Blackwood Targaryen does not care, as she burns some of Aegon's hair, then hers, then both of theirs tied together, as she slices her palm open with a stone knife as old as time and turned red with the blood of others, as the Gammer burns her bloodied shift and herbs and tiny, fragile weirwood sticks _not bones not bones not bones_. 

They chant and pray all night long, and as the sun rises, so do they to leave. 

"Y'll get yor son, girl, but on th' Gods time, never ours." The Gammer advises, and Betha just tucks herself in deeper to her cloak and nods, looking at the old yet somehow ageless face one last time before walking away.

**Author's Note:**

> story title comes from this quote,  
> "I do not care what comes after. I have seen the dragons on the wind of morning." Ursula K. Le Guin, _The Farthest Shore_


End file.
